Selective monitor control

ABSTRACT

Reducing energy usage by a monitor includes a map manager between a monitor interface and a processor that divides a display area of a monitor into areas and stores display information in a staging area. The map manager distinguishes an active window selected by a user from the remainder inactive, unselected areas of a display, and further determines a used subset of areas within the active window distinguished from the remainder unused areas as a function of a user preference. Accordingly, the map manager drives the monitor at each of the used area active window areas with the processor display information stored in the staging area at a normal luminance specified by the processor display information, and at each of the remainder unused, inactive and unselected areas of the total display area at a reduced luminance lower than the specified normal luminance.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to the selective energizing of portions ofvideo monitor displays.

Reduction of power consumption by computer monitors is desired toaccomplish energy savings and otherwise effect environmentally friendlyor “green” information technology environments. Various schemes havebeen proposed for reducing energy usage by identifying opportunities forreducing energy provided to inactive screens or inactive windows withinsaid screens. However, any such approach is limited in recognizing andrealizing available energy expenditure and light emissions savings whilestill meeting the needs of a user of the screen.

BRIEF SUMMARY

One embodiment of the present invention is a method for reducing energyusage by a monitor which includes dividing a display area of a monitorinto areas and storing display information from a processor in a stagingarea in response to a display instruction from the processor. Atop-focused active window selected by a user is distinguished within theprocessor display information from the remainder of inactive andunselected areas of a total display area and has a top-focused pluralityof the areas. The method also includes determining that a subset of atotality of the top-focused areas comprehends a used window areadistinguished from a remainder of the unused area of the top-focusedwindow areas as a function of a user preference. According, the methoddrives the monitor at each of the used area subset top-focused windowareas with the processor display information stored in the staging areaat a normal luminance specified by the processor display information,and at each of the remainder, unused and unselected areas of the totaldisplay area at a reduced luminance that is lower than the normalluminance specified by the processor display information.

In another embodiment, a computer system for reducing energy usage by amonitor includes a map manager between a monitor interface and aprocessor wherein the map manager divides a display area of a monitorinto areas and stores display information from the processor in astaging area in response to a display instruction from the processor.The map manager further distinguishes a top-focused active windowselected by a user within the processor display information from aremainder inactive unselected area of a total display area of theprocessor, the top-focused active window comprising a top-focusedplurality of the areas. The map manager determines that a subset of atotality of the top-focused plurality of areas comprises a used windowarea distinguished from a remainder unused area of the top-focusedwindow areas plurality as a function of a user preference. Accordingly,the map manager drives the monitor at each of the used area subsettop-focused window areas with the processor display information storedin the staging area at a normal luminance specified by the processordisplay information; and at each of the remainder unused, inactive andunselected areas of the total display area at a reduced luminance thatis lower than the normal luminance specified by the processor displayinformation.

In another embodiment, a computer program product for reducing energyusage by a monitor includes a computer readable storage medium andprogram instructions stored thereon. The program instructions are todivide a display area of a monitor into at least one plurality of areasand store display information from a processor in a staging area inresponse to a display instruction from the processor. The instructionsare also to distinguish a top-focused active window selected by a userwithin the processor display information from a remainder inactiveunselected area of a total display area of the processor, and todetermine that a subset of a totality of the top-focused plurality ofareas within the active window define a used window area distinguishedfrom a remainder unused area of the active window as a function of auser preference. Lastly, the instructions are also to drive the monitorat each of the active window used areas with the processor displayinformation stored in the staging area at a normal luminance specifiedby the processor display information, and at each of the remainder ofthe active window unused areas and inactive unselected areas of thetotal display area at a reduced luminance that is lower than the normalluminance specified by the processor display information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features of this invention will be more readilyunderstood from the following detailed description of the variousaspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a method or system according to thepresent invention for reducing energy usage by a monitor as a functionof partial screen area activity.

FIG. 2 illustrates a monitor surface logically divided according to thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a computerized implementation of anembodiment of the present invention.

The drawings are not necessarily to scale. The drawings are merelyschematic representations, not intended to portray specific parametersof the invention. The drawings are intended to depict only typicalembodiments of the invention, and therefore should not be considered aslimiting the scope of the invention. In the drawings, like numberingrepresents like elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in abaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

Referring now to FIG. 1, an embodiment of a method or system forreducing energy usage by a monitor as a function of partial screen areaactivity according to the present invention is illustrated. At 102 a mapmanager interposed or otherwise provided between a monitor interface anda processor divides a display area of a monitor into one or morepluralities of areas. Division of the display area of the monitor for acolor generation process according to the present embodiment includestwo types of plurality divisions (though other embodiments may practicemore or less), physical divisions into area blocks or cells of backlights, and logical divisions of blocks or cells of color informationarrangement for luminance of cells. More particularly, the monitordisplay is physically and logically divided into blocks or cells thatmay each be selectively and separately driven at discrete luminanceand/or backlight values. In some embodiments, back-light blocks/cellsare different from color luminance blocks/cells, and wherein each of thepluralities are controlled by separate display controller components,and they may also differ in number and size of blocks.

Either or both of the back-light physical division and the logicaldivision of the color luminance logical division may be a userselection, or they may be predetermined or implemented, for example by adisplay manufacturer, manager entity or service provider. Embodimentsusing multiple types of logical and physical divisions may thus provideadditional energy savings capabilities; for example, some portions ofthe display area may be selected to receive full color lumen data but nobacklight energy, others backlight but low-energy level lumen data,still other alternating combinations, and wherein any specificcombination may be selected to maximize energy savings, extend displayservice life, or serve some other parameter or objective.

It will also be apparent that increasing the granularity of either ofthe backlight physical divisions or the color luminance logicaldivisions will increase the amount of emission control possible, thusincreasing possible power savings through reducing areas of the monitorneedlessly backlit or driven at full color luminance. Further, backlightpower is not required while RGB color information is altered in arefresh, offering additional energy saving in a refresh of suchdivisions, cells or screen areas.

At 104 the map manager stores display information from the processor ina staging area in response to a display instruction from the processor.At 106 the map manager distinguishes a top-focused active windowselected by a user within the processor display information from aremainder, inactive and unselected area of a total display area of theprocessor, and wherein the top-focused active window comprises aplurality of the division blocks.

At 108 the map manager utilizes a user preference to determine a subsetor portion of a totality of the top-focused window division blocksdefining a used area as distinguished from a remainder of thetop-focused window division blocks that are actually unused. Moreparticularly, after receipt of a user's preference input as a displaychoice, at 110 the map manager causes the monitor to be driven by theprocessor display information by (i) driving the monitor at the usedarea subset division blocks of the top-focused window with fullbacklight intensity and with the processor display information stored inthe staging area at a color luminance level provided by the processordisplay information (for example, an original or specified luminanceprovided by the display information; and (ii) reducing a color luminancelevel of the monitor and/or causing a low or no backlight intensity atthe remaining unused division blocks of the top-focused window, as wellas at the rest of the display (i.e. the remainder inactive, unselectedarea of the total display area, that area outside of the top-focusedwindow), resulting in lower power outputs and/or a lower level of colorluminance at the used area subset division blocks of the top-focusedwindow.

Energizing only active, used portions of a monitor surface according tothe present invention may thereby reduce total energy usage and emissionof light from a video display computer monitor, in some examplesresulting in savings of approximately 70% to 80% of total powerconsumption over prior art methods which typically effect power savingsby either sending an entire display area into a stand-by mode for powersaving wherein nothing is visible on the screen while in power savingmode, including active areas of interest to a user. Other methods maydistinguish active windows from other inactive areas, but they provideno teachings with respect to realizing energy savings throughdifferentiated luminance energy usage within different regions of anactive window.

According to the present invention, the lower luminance level of theunused division blocks of an active window and the remainder, inactivedisplay areas outside of the active window may be one or both of ano-power (for example, no backlight power) and a no-color luminance datalevel. It may also be a lower emission, predefined color combinationthat minimizes radiation emissions; for example, some RGB color tonesmay have higher radiation emissions than others, and accordingly thosehigh-emission tones may be minimized or eliminated for the low-levelsetting. For example, in some embodiments, lower luminance level colorcombinations comprise low-contrast combinations selected and provided tothe active/unused and inactive division blocks in order to replace andavoid high-contrast color combinations present in original RGB inputinformation as rendering high-contrast images may require higheremissions by a monitor, substituting low-contrast combinations, orreducing the color contrast in the original input color information,enables further energy savings over the prior art.

The substitute or color combination alteration practices by the presentinvention may be user-specified. For example, predefined colorcombinations may be provided to the map manager to account for usercolor blindness, the color tones of the lower luminance levels selectedto avoid combinations that may be unintelligible for those with colorblindness, to instead provide certain contrasting color tones to enablea color-blind user to distinguish distinct display elements within thelow-level active/unused and inactive areas (for example, windowboundaries, elements within inactive windows and tool bars, etc). Theterm “color-blindness” refers to a variety of different conditions.Illustrative but not exhaustive examples include protanopia, the absenceof red sensitivity, also referred to as red dichromacy; protanomalia, ared weakness; deuteranopia, the absence of green sensitivity, alsoreferred to as green dichromacy; deuteranomalia, green weakness;tritanopia, the absence of blue sensitivity, also referred to as bluedichromacy; and, theoretically, tritanomalia, blue weakness. Optimizingcolor levels to account for one or more of these different color-blindconditions may be ineffective or even deleterious with respect toaccounting for others; thus, embodiments of the present invention mayallow for user selection or customization of color tone combinations forknown user requirements (i.e. one combination for a red weakness,another different one for a blue dichromacy, etc.)

In another aspect, activating or powering only a used/active portion ofa monitor surface may correspondingly reduce an amount of eye strainexperienced by a user in using and reading information from a monitorsurface.

FIG. 2 illustrates a monitor surface 202 divided into a grid of divisionblocks or cells 204. The processor display information comprises anactive area 206, which is a top-focused screen element in active use byuser of a computer system in communication with the monitor. Typically,the active area 206 is an application window 206 on a desktop display202 which enables a user to interact with data and process associatedwith said application. Illustrative but not exhaustive examples ofwindows 206 include those provided and configured by operating systemssuch as WINDOWS (WINDOWS is a trademark of the Microsoft Corporation inthe United States or other countries), MAC OS X (MAC OS X is a trademarkof the Apple Corporation in the United States or other countries), LINUX(LINUX is a trademark of the Linux Foundation in the United States orother countries), and still others appropriate for use with the presentinvention will be apparent to one skilled in the art. The window 206 maybe recognized or designated as active in response to a variety of inputsfrom several input devices, for example from a graphical user interface(GUI) mouse, keyboard, cursor, etc., or through an operating system orapplication routine.

According to the present invention, the active window/area 206 isfurther divided into a used area 210 and an unused area 212 as afunction of a division of the display surface of a target monitor,wherein the map manager may generate different color information andbacklight intensities for each of the division blocks 204 of each of theareas 210/212. The inactive area 208 of the display 202 is defined asthe remainder of the total display area 202 not included within theactive window 206. These include blocks 204 c which are not otherwiseselected by the user, and accordingly which may have no or lower powerconsumption.

The active/used areas 210 and active/unused areas 212 may be defined bya user, system or administrator through a variety of methods. In thepresent example, the user-defined used area 210 is defined to compriseeach of the blocks 204 a that are both within the three rows 214 ofblocks that are encompassed within an upper or top area of the activewindow 206 and including an area being used by the user within theactive window 206 (for example, including a cursor or text being editedor selected by the user, etc.). The blocks 204 b within the next two,lower rows 216 may thus be treated like the blocks 204 c outside of theactive window 206 in the inactive area 208, wherein each of the blocks204 b and 204 c may have a lower or no backlight or color luminance,thereby providing energy efficiencies greater than that obtained byprior art methods wherein all of the entire active window/area 206 has ahigher or full luminance.

Other embodiments may use other user-selection criteria. In one example,used/unused area criteria include selecting a specified number ofhorizontal rows and vertical columns within an active window that areproximate to a focal point (for example, cursor, text being read,highlighted or edited, etc.), for example including the focal point. Anentire active sub-area or window, radio button, dialog box or otherdiscrete area within the active window 206 may be specified. Cornercells about a focal point or other pre-defined cells may be selected todemarcate boundaries of an area or window of interest, for exampleidentifying only those cells including a portion of text or itemselection, or those one or two cells or other range of cells surroundinga focal point. Still others will be apparent to one skilled in the art.

User or system preferences may thus be provided to the map manager, insome embodiments from a computer-readable storage medium incommunication with the map manager. Used/active area 210 selection maybe manually triggered by a user, for example through use of a dedicatedhardware button or selection of a GUI input by a cursor. It may also beautomatically initiated by an application or a device driver, forexample as a default power-saving setting that may be deselected by auser, in some instances as part of a screen-saver or other powermanagement options

In some embodiments, differing levels of low/no luminance may bepracticed within the respective blocks 204 b/204 c. For example, theunused blocks 204 b within the active window 206 may be visuallydistinguished from the inactive area 208 blocks 204 c through use of adifferent lower luminance level and/or backlight intensity, or with alow level wherein the inactive blocks 204 c have no luminance, etc. Forexample, in one embodiment, both the active window/unused blocks 204 band the inactive area/unused blocks 204 c may receive a same lowerluminance level, but wherein the active window/unused blocks 204 breceive backlight power and the inactive area/unused blocks 204 c areinstead powered off and receive no backlight power. Still othercombinations will be apparent to one skilled in the art.

Some areas within the display may also receive different, distinguishingtreatment as a function of unique status. For example, a task bar area218 (at the bottom of the screen in the present example) may bedesignated as a permanent area 218 wherein it may remain illuminated ata higher level relative to the other unused blocks 204 b and 204 c, insome examples at a level equivalent to the used/active blocks 204 a.

FIG. 3 provides an exemplary implementation of an embodiment of thepresent invention, for example of the method and process of FIG. 1discussed above. A device 302 driving a monitor display comprises or isin communication with a main monitor board 304 which outputs displayinformation through an RGB color information interface 306 for driving adisplay monitor 202. The device 302 may be a computer or otherprogrammable device, or it may be a non-programmable device, for examplea television or camera circuit 302. A map manager circuit 308 isinterposed between the display 202 and the main monitor board 304 andcomprises a microprocessor or other processing device 310 in circuitcommunication with the RGB output interface 306. A map manager device312 is in circuit communication with the processor 310 and with astaging area memory device 314. In response to (as a function of) user(or default) selection criteria 316, the map manager 312 divides themonitor display into a plurality of blocks or cells (for example theblocks 204 of FIG. 2).

The map manager 312 communicates with the processor 310 and receivesinstructions to read data from the staging area 314 and maps the data tothe monitor interface 322 to focus light accordingly on the displayscreen 202 as a function of the user selection data 316 input. The userselection data 316 is in communication with the monitor 202, wherein thedifferential division block emission process and system may be activatedthrough initiation of a button on the physical monitor 202 by a user,and wherein the monitor 202 may also provide feedback to the circuit 308in some examples. The processor 310 may be responsible for a variety ofprocess executions, for example including a color generation requestfrom the map manager 312 for the active area/unused section 212;understanding or defining the active area/window 206 or used portionthereof 210; processing of a power circuit request for the map manager312 to enable a back light for the active/used area portion 210; sendingcolor information to divisions 204 a for the active/used area portion210; providing data in response to a color information request from themap manager 312 if a user changes a display choice; and receivingZ-Order information from a Video Graphics Array (VGA) input from the RGBcolor information interface 306. It will be understood that the term“Z-order” refers to the ordering of objects in a display with respect toa Z-axis in coordinate geometry, where X refers to a horizontal axis(left to right) and Y to a vertical axis (up and down), and Z refers tothe axis perpendicular to the other two (forward or backward). Thus, ifapplication windows in a GUI are considered as a series of planesparallel to the surface of the monitor, the windows are typicallystacked along the Z-axis, and the Z-order information thus specifies thefront-to-back ordering of the windows on the screen, with a top windowsheet having the highest Z value.

In contrast to prior art methods, embodiments of the present inventiondivide the monitor display area into one or more pluralities ofdivisions or cells wherein each may be managed with a differentcontroller. In the present embodiment, the monitor display blocks 204may be selectively driven at discrete luminance and backlight values bythe map manager 312 through use of a power controller 318 and a separatedisplay controller 320 in communication with a monitor interface 322,for example, through use of separate Electrically Erasable ProgrammableRead-Only Memories (EEPROM's) 318/320.

The physical division of backlight arrangement for powering the displayscreen 202 is achieved through use of the power controller 318. Atsystem boot, it may provide power to all screen blocks 204, and bydefault after receipt of a Z-Order it may set for active screen-onlywith full intensity at the used area screen blocks 204 a. After receiptof user's input data 316 as a display choice, the power controller 318may provide power wherein the intensity at each of the used/active area210 blocks 204 a will be high, and each of the active/unused area 212blocks 204 b will be low; thus, a separate backlight may be provided foreach physical division block 204. This is contrasted with prior artliquid crystal (LCD) display methods which generally require uniformbacklighting and provide no mechanism to selectively controlbacklighting in unused sections of active monitors, for example wastingpower in lighting white unused screen areas.

In a second type of division, a logical division of color informationarrangement for luminance of logically-divided cells 204 comprisesgeneration of two different color information outputs by the displaycontroller 320, one for the used/active area 210 and the other for theactive/unused area 212. Thus, the map manager may send the respectivelogical blocks 204 of information for the used/active area 210 and theactive/unused area 212 as well as actual color information from thestaging area 314, generally generating colors with less luminance forthe active/unused area 212 after conversion of actual colors for theused/active area 210.

As discussed generally above, in some embodiments, backlight luminanceblocks controlled by the power controller 318 may differ from luminanceblocks controlled by display controller 320, and more particularly theymay differ in number and/or size of blocks. Either or both of thephysical division of each of the backlight blocks or cells and thelogical division of the color luminance blocks or cells may be a userselection, for example a decision of a display manufacturer. Embodimentsusing multiple types of logical divisions may thus provide additionalenergy savings capabilities; for example, active area/unused blocks 204b and inactive area blocks 204 c may be selected to receive full colorlumen data but not backlight energy, or backlight but low-energy levellumen data, or alternating combinations with respect to inactive areablocks 204 c which are in a permanent area task bar, etc., and wherein aspecific combination may be selected to maximize energy savings, extenddisplay service life, or serve some other parameter or objective.Further, backlight power is not required while RGB information isaltered in a refresh or otherwise of an active area/unused block 204 bor an inactive block 204 c according to the present invention.

Staging RGB and backlight information in the staging area 314 before themonitor interface 322 enables further energy efficiencies over the priorart. The staging area 314 stores RGB data from the source (for example,main monitor board 304) and caters as the RGB source for the monitorinterface 322. The map manager 312 may map as per the staging area 314data onto the monitor screen 204 for pixel to pixel, and once mapped amonitor refresh is performed. In one aspect, timely refreshment of RGBgeneration in the display 202 need only involve the active area/usedblocks 204 a, and not the other blocks 204 b and 204 c, and may furtherrequire RGB refresh only at times required by the active area/usedmonitor blocks 204 a as indicated by the interface 322. This providesfurther energy savings over prior art methods that refresh the entirescreen, in one aspect as refresh timing is different from standard andwhole-screen refreshing.

The processor 310 receives user selection and other input data 316 fromthe map manager 312 and directs the map manager 312 to read the displayinformation from staging area 314. Once data is available to processor310 and it receives acknowledgement from the staging area 314, it sendsinstructions for color generation as per the user's input 316. Prior artlight-emitting diode (LED) display methods are generally unable to findthe last data of inactive sections once an LED display has been turnedoff; to remember a last-used screen emission profile, those LED's withlesser illumination must be powered on those, thus needlessly energizingsome portions of the display when the LED monitor is turned back on. Incontrast, embodiments of the present invention may retrieve colorinformation data relative to previously inactive sections from thestaging area 314 before turning the monitor back on; there is no need topower the unused portions at power on.

In some embodiments, the distinguishing active area/used blocks 204 afrom area/unused blocks 204 b and inactive area blocks 204 c may bethrough a Boolean logic “AND” process, thus sending the higher energylevels only to blocks that are both in an active window and identifiedas used through application of the user selection criteria 316. In oneembodiment, the user selection data 316 and active areas determinationare part of the map manager 312, with the used and unused areadeterminations inputs for the power controller 318 and the displaycontroller 320 for their processing, the display controller 320generating colors with less luminance for the unused area 208.

The implementation of the map manager circuit 308 in FIG. 3 comprisesvarious components, some of which are illustrated. More particularly, itwill be understood that the device 302 and the map manager circuit 308may include processing units, inclusive of central processing units(CPU's), for example the processor 310 in communication with one or moreexternal I/O devices/resources 304 and 322 and which may includecomputer-readable storage systems (for example, 314, 316, 305, etc.). Ingeneral, the processing unit 310 and map manager 312 may executecomputer program code, such as the code to implement one or more of theprocess steps illustrated in FIG. 1, which may be stored in the memories314, 316 and/or 305.

One embodiment performs process steps of the invention on asubscription, advertising, and/or fee basis. That is, a service providercould offer to reduce energy usage by a monitor as a function of partialscreen area activity. In this case, the service provider can create,maintain, and support, etc., a computer infrastructure, such as all orpart of the network computer infrastructure of FIG. 3 that performs theprocess steps of the invention for one or more customers. In return, theservice provider can receive payment from the customer(s) under asubscription and/or fee agreement and/or the service provider canreceive payment from the sale of advertising content to one or morethird parties.

In still another embodiment, the invention provides acomputer-implemented method for executing one or more of the processes,systems and articles for reducing energy usage by a monitor as afunction of partial screen area activity as described above. In thiscase, a computer infrastructure, such as all or part of the computerinfrastructure of FIG. 3, can be provided and one or more systems forperforming the process steps of the invention can be obtained (e.g.,created, purchased, used, modified, etc.) and deployed to the computerinfrastructure. To this extent, the deployment of a system can compriseone or more of: (1) installing program code on a computing device, suchas the computers/devices 302/304/308, from a computer-readable medium;(2) adding one or more computing devices to the computer infrastructure;and (3) incorporating and/or modifying one or more existing systems ofthe computer infrastructure to enable the computer infrastructure toperform the process steps of the invention.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, it is understood thatthe terms “program code” and “computer program code” are synonymous andmean any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set ofinstructions intended to cause a computing device having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: (a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; and/or (b) reproduction in a differentmaterial form. To this extent, program code can be embodied as one ormore of an application/software program, component software/a library offunctions, an operating system, a basic I/O system/driver for aparticular computing and/or I/O device, and the like.

Certain examples and elements described in the present specification,including in the claims and as illustrated in the Figures, may bedistinguished or otherwise identified from others by unique adjectives(e.g., a “first” element distinguished from another “second” or “third”of a plurality of elements, a “primary” distinguished from a“secondary,” one or “another” item, etc.) Such identifying adjectivesare generally used to reduce confusion or uncertainty, and are not to beconstrued to limit the claims to any specific illustrated element orembodiment, or to imply any precedence, ordering or ranking of any claimelements, limitations or process steps.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. Thedescription of the present invention has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Theembodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for reducing energyusage by a monitor, the method comprising executing on a processing unitthe steps of: distinguishing, from a remainder second plurality ofblocks, a first plurality of blocks that are each within a top-focusedactive window within display information that is output by a mainmonitor board to a display area of a monitor, wherein the display areaof the monitor is divided into a total display area grid of differentblocks that includes the first plurality of blocks and the secondplurality of blocks, wherein the remainder second plurality of theblocks are each within a remainder inactive and unselected area of thetotal display area of the monitor that is different from the top-focusedactive window; selecting a first subset of the top-focused active windowfirst plurality of blocks consisting of a focal point within thetop-focused active window, wherein the focus point is selected from agroup consisting of a highlighted text selection and an item selection,and wherein the first subset of the top-focused active window firstplurality of blocks is distinguished from a remainder second subset ofthe first plurality of blocks of the top-focused active window; drivingthe first subset of the first plurality of blocks of the top-focusedactive window display area of the display area of the monitor withdisplay information at a normal level of color luminance and at a normallevel of backlight power; driving the second remainder subset of thefirst plurality of blocks of the top-focused active window display areaof the monitor at the normal level of backlight power, and at a reducedlevel of color luminance that is lower than the normal level of colorluminance; and driving the remainder second plurality of the blockswithin the remainder inactive and unselected area of the total displayarea of the monitor at the reduced level of color luminance, and at areduced level of backlight power that is lower than the normal level ofbacklight power.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reduced level ofbacklight power is no backlight power.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe reduced level of color luminance level comprises contrasting colortones selected to allow a specific user to distinguish distinct displayelements within the second remainder subset of the first plurality ofblocks of the top-focused active window display area of the monitor, andwherein the contrasting color tones are selected to be intelligible to auser having one or more of protanopia, protanomalia, deuteranopia,deuteranomalia, tritanopia and tritanomalia.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the step of selecting the first subset of the top-focused activewindow first plurality of blocks comprises selecting only those blocksthat include a portion of the text selection or the item selection. 5.The method of claim 1, further comprising executing on the processor thestep of: visually distinguishing a first task bar subset group of thesecond plurality of the blocks within the remainder inactive andunselected area of the total display area of the monitor from anothersubset group of the second plurality of the blocks within the remainderinactive and unselected area of the total display area, by driving thefirst task bar subset group blocks with display information at thenormal level of color luminance and at the normal level of backlightpower.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the reduced level of colorluminance comprises a predefined low-contrast color combination thatcauses the monitor to emit a first amount of radiation in rendering thedisplay information from the main monitor board; and wherein the normallevel of color luminance comprises a high-contrast color combinationthat causes the monitor to emit a second amount of radiation inrendering the display information from the main monitor board that is ahigher than the first amount of radiation emitted by the monitor.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the top-focused active window is a one of aplurality of windows in the display information from the main monitorboard that has a highest Z-order value.
 8. The method of claim 1,further comprising: integrating computer-readable program code into acomputer system comprising the processing unit, a computer readablememory and a computer readable storage hardware device; wherein thecomputer readable program code is embodied on the computer readablestorage hardware device and comprises instructions for execution by theprocessing unit via the computer readable memory that cause theprocessing unit to perform the steps of distinguishing from the firstplurality of blocks the remainder second plurality of blocks that areeach within the top-focused active window within the display informationthat is output by the main monitor board to the display area of themonitor, selecting the first subset of the top-focused active windowfirst plurality of blocks that is distinguished from the remaindersecond subset of the first plurality of blocks of the top-focused activewindow, driving the first subset of the first plurality of blocks of thetop-focused active window display area of the display area of themonitor with display information at the normal level of color luminanceand at the normal level of backlight power, driving the second remaindersubset of the first plurality of blocks of the top-focused active windowdisplay area of the monitor at the normal level of backlight power andat the reduced level of color luminance, and driving the remaindersecond plurality of the blocks within the remainder inactive andunselected area of the total display area of the monitor at the reducedlevel of color luminance and at the reduced level of backlight power. 9.A system, comprising: a processor that is interposed between a monitorand a main monitor board; a computer readable memory in communicationwith the processor; and a computer-readable storage hardware device incommunication with the processor; wherein the processor executes programinstructions stored on the computer-readable storage hardware device viathe computer readable memory and thereby: distinguishes, from aremainder second plurality of blocks, a first plurality of blocks thatare each within a top-focused active window within display informationthat is output by a main monitor board to a display area of a monitor,wherein the display area of the monitor is divided into a total displayarea grid of different blocks that includes the first plurality ofblocks and the second plurality of blocks, wherein the remainder secondplurality of the blocks are each within a remainder inactive andunselected area of the total display area of the monitor that isdifferent from the top-focused active window; selects a first subset ofthe top-focused active window first plurality of blocks consisting of afocal point within the top-focused active window, wherein the focuspoint is selected from a group consisting of a highlighted textselection and an item selection, and wherein the first subset of thetop-focused active window first plurality of blocks is distinguishedfrom a remainder second subset of the first plurality of blocks of thetop-focused active window; drives the first subset of the firstplurality of blocks of the top-focused active window display area of thedisplay area of the monitor with display information at a normal levelof color luminance and at a normal level of backlight power; drives thesecond remainder subset of the first plurality of blocks of thetop-focused active window display area of the monitor at the normallevel of backlight power, and at a reduced level of color luminance thatis lower than the normal level of color luminance; and drives theremainder second plurality of the blocks within the remainder inactiveand unselected area of the total display area of the monitor at thereduced level of color luminance, and at a reduced level of backlightpower that is lower than the normal level of backlight power.
 10. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein the reduced level of backlight power is nobacklight power.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein the reduced level ofcolor luminance level comprises contrasting color tones selected toallow a specific user to distinguish distinct display elements withinthe second remainder subset of the first plurality of blocks of thetop-focused active window display area of the monitor, and wherein thecontrasting color tones are selected to be intelligible to a user havingone or more of protanopia, protanomalia, deuteranopia, deuteranomalia,tritanopia and tritanomalia.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein thefirst subset of the top-focused active window first plurality of blockscomprises only those blocks that include a portion of the text selectionor the item selection.
 13. The system of claim 9, wherein the processorexecutes the program instructions stored on the computer-readablestorage hardware device via the computer readable memory and therebyfurther visually distinguishes a first task bar subset group of thesecond plurality of the blocks within the remainder inactive andunselected area of the total display area of the monitor from anothersubset group of the second plurality of the blocks within the remainderinactive and unselected area of the total display area, by driving thefirst task bar subset group blocks with display information at thenormal level of color luminance and at the normal level of backlightpower.
 14. The system of claim 9, wherein the reduced level of colorluminance comprises a predefined low-contrast color combination thatcauses the monitor to emit a first amount of radiation in rendering thedisplay information from the main monitor board; and wherein the normallevel of color luminance comprises a high-contrast color combinationthat causes the monitor to emit a second amount of radiation inrendering the display information from the main monitor board that is ahigher than the first amount of radiation emitted by the monitor.
 15. Anarticle of manufacture, comprising: a computer readable storage hardwaredevice having computer readable program code embodied therewith, whereinthe computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se,the computer readable program code comprising instructions for executionby a processor that cause the processor to: distinguish, from aremainder second plurality of blocks, a first plurality of blocks thatare each within a top-focused active window within display informationthat is output by a main monitor board to a display area of a monitor,wherein the display area of the monitor is divided into a total displayarea grid of different blocks that includes the first plurality ofblocks and the second plurality of blocks, wherein the remainder secondplurality of the blocks are each within a remainder inactive andunselected area of the total display area of the monitor that isdifferent from the top-focused active window; select a first subset ofthe top-focused active window first plurality of blocks consisting of afocal point within the top-focused active window, wherein the focuspoint is selected from a group consisting of a highlighted textselection and an item selection, and wherein the first subset of thetop-focused active window first plurality of blocks is distinguishedfrom a remainder second subset of the first plurality of blocks of thetop-focused active window; drive the first subset of the first pluralityof blocks of the top-focused active window display area of the displayarea of the monitor with display information at a normal level of colorluminance and at a normal level of backlight power; drive the secondremainder subset of the first plurality of blocks of the top-focusedactive window display area of the monitor at the normal level ofbacklight power, and at a reduced level of color luminance that is lowerthan the normal level of color luminance; and drive the remainder secondplurality of the blocks within the remainder inactive and unselectedarea of the total display area of the monitor at the reduced level ofcolor luminance, and at a reduced level of backlight power that is lowerthan the normal level of backlight power.
 16. The article of manufactureof claim 15, wherein the reduced level of backlight power is nobacklight power.
 17. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein thereduced level of color luminance level comprises contrasting color tonesselected to allow a specific user to distinguish distinct displayelements within the second remainder subset of the first plurality ofblocks of the top-focused active window display area of the monitor, andwherein the contrasting color tones are selected to be intelligible to auser having one or more of protanopia, protanomalia, deuteranopia,deuteranomalia, tritanopia and tritanomalia.
 18. The article ofmanufacture of claim 15, wherein the first subset of the top-focusedactive window first plurality of blocks comprises only those blocks thatinclude a portion of the text selection or the item selection.
 19. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the computer readableprogram code instructions for execution by the processor further causethe processor to visually distinguish a first task bar subset group ofthe second plurality of the blocks within the remainder inactive andunselected area of the total display area of the monitor from anothersubset group of the second plurality of the blocks within the remainderinactive and unselected area of the total display area, by driving thefirst task bar subset group blocks with display information at thenormal level of color luminance and at the normal level of backlightpower.
 20. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the reducedlevel of color luminance comprises a predefined low-contrast colorcombination that causes the monitor to emit a first amount of radiationin rendering the display information from the main monitor board; andwherein the normal level of color luminance comprises a high-contrastcolor combination that causes the monitor to emit a second amount ofradiation in rendering the display information from the main monitorboard that is a higher than the first amount of radiation emitted by themonitor.